The following comes from a Sept. 8 posting on Ed Peters’ Canon Law Blog.
…. At the pope’s request, a tiny group of experts, most from just one country, developed these new canons and explanations in a very short time. I find, however, the implications of some of these norms for marriage law in general, and for diocesan bishops in particular, stunning, and I join Dr. Kurt Martens of CUA in wondering how bishops must feel at having such significant burdens thrust on them just in time for Christmas with, as far as one can see, virtually no prior consultation. I expressly cautioned against this approach last year and sound that claxon again. Assuming, in any event, that I have read the new norms correctly, and assuming that there are no easy resolutions to my concerns, what might one suggest?
First, and most importantly, the vacatio legis (a delay period before new laws go into effect per Canon 8) indicated for Mitis should be extended from this December until well into next year at the very least. If, as some assert, Francis’ annulment reforms are the most significant in the last three hundred years, a considerably longer period than three months is needed to prepare for them. If necessary, a request for an extension could be proposed by the upcoming Synod of Bishops.
Second, a much wider consultation about annulment reform should be conducted, a consultation that would involve, at a minimum, many identified diocesan bishops (identified precisely so observers could forward remarks to them) and canonists from several countries, especially from countries with extensive tribunal operational experience.
I repeat, some aspects of Mitis are sound. The elimination of mandatory appeal, for example, can be put into effect with minimal delay. But other aspects of Mitis, especially the fast-track annulment option, need, I suggest, considerably more study. I only hope sufficient time is accorded the wider Church to make such studies feasible.
With God all things are possible.
Pope Frances signed the MP on the Assumption of Our Blessed Mother, he issued it on the Birth of Our Blessed Mother and the new rules begin on the Immaculate Conception of Our Blessed Mother. Yes Mary is the undoer of knots, but I find it discomforting that the Pope gives the MP a Marian identity. Our Blessed Mother was married once and stayed chaste. She honored her marriage and was obedient to the the will of God. So many of divorces and annulments could be worked out to keep the marriage intact. Mary, Undoer of Knots pray for us.
I agree. But instead of making less stringent laws regarding annulments, why not propose revamping the marriage process. I believe that having a good education process with retreats for the engaged, not just one, couples who will walk with the engaged before and after, along with helping them to manage finances and family life, will assist young couples to remain married. The lure of the world has infiltrated family life and now couples who contracept without understanding the sin it imposes have greater consequences/
Check your Diocese (and Parish) web sites.
It takes approx. 6 months of classes prior to a marriage within the Church.
However, I doubt they require reading the CCC regarding Marriage, Divorce, etc.
If things are simplified, it cannot be that difficult to implement the changes. The
complaints about timing like this are nothing more but a stalling strategy on the part of those who have an aversion to change or simply don’t want annulments to happen in any case. This man should shut up and get to work. His objections are absurd. He wants the process to remain punitive.
….not a matter of the process remaining punitive, Ted, but just and accurate. Speed often doesn’t necessitate accuracy and as the saying goes… haste makes waste. In this case, it can also facilitate rampant abuse.
.Douay-Rheims Bible Jesus’ Teaching about Divorce (Mark 10:1-12)
…3And there came to him the Pharisees tempting him, and saying: Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? 4Who answering, said to them: Have ye not read, that he who made man from the beginning, Made them male and female? And he said: 5For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be in one flesh. 6Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder. 7They say to him: Why then did Moses command to give a bill of divorce, and to put away? 8He saith to them: Because Moses by reason of the hardness of your heart permitted you to put away your…
…wives: but from the beginning it was not so. 9And I say to you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and he that shall marry her that is put away, committeth adultery.10His disciples say unto him: If the case of a man with his wife be so, it is not expedient to marry. 11Who said to them: All men take not this word, but they to whom it is given. 12For there are eunuchs, who were born so from their mother’s womb: and there are eunuchs, who were made so by men: and there are eunuchs, who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven. He that can take, let him take it.
I’d sure like to know how you can justify making it easier (aka making annulments more streamlined, as in no-fault divorce) to divorce a spouse. Who are you people anyway? Why do you even bother taking Communion if you don’t believe Jesus was who He said He was and that every word He uttered was TRUTH…truth that never changes from the beginning of Creation til now and forever?
An ANNULMENT is only given to those whose marriage was NEVER VALID in the first place.
This is due to legitimate impediments at the time of the marriage.
Anything else is an abuse and a sin.
….and UNDUE HASTE with regard to something as SERIOUS as SACRAMENTAL MARRIAGE that not only involves the eternal disposition of the souls of the spouses, but those of children is nothing to put on a fast track.
That is why the rituals, rites, procedures revolving around such matters should be executed in such a way that heightens the bar of integrity, not opens the door wide to abuse.
Shall we do away with marriage preparation etc so that folks can get married quicker – just to increase the numbers of Catholic marriages? Good grief.
It takes time and serious study to determine if a marriage was valid. This so- called stream lining is nothing more than making it easy to get married again like that given Henry the VIII after all his marriages. This is scandalous and is going to be catastrophic to the whole legitimacy of marriage and the protection of children. Shame on those who would mock God that are in positions as His shepherds. To all you who think this is a done deal, I think you have a big surprise coming!
Have some faith in God. He can get the job done in 45 days.
It is disturbing that the VATICAN has not distributed these changes to Code of Canon Law in all the major languages. Yet they are to go into effect for both the Latin and Eastern Rites in a couple of months.
To date they are only available in Italian and Latin.
https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/la/motu_proprio/documents/papa-francesco-motu-proprio_20150815_mitis-iudex-dominus-iesus.html
and the majority of the world will have to rely on “google translate”
https://translate.google.com/#it/en/
All major languages should have been available and posted at the same time.
Please. The majority of the world will not have to rely on “google translate”. The majority of the Christian world speaks Portuguese, Spanish, English, French, Russian, Italian, or has enough fluency in them or in Latin to understand these new regulations, and you can bet that the various Bishops conferences or groups like ICEL will translate them in plenty of time to be enforced. And in those rare instances in which an obscure language serves a small number of people (some African countries that have lost touch with colonial languages), the harm in taking a little longer to implement can’t be worse than the entire world waiting for translation to every language.